On Touristing Your Own City

When I studied abroad, I forced my ass out of bed early every weekend and went exploring. And taking a modern art class in Paris encouraged me to check out most of the major, must-see museums. I touristed, guys. I touristed like a big, fat touristing thing.

(Speaking of Paris, I nearly had a run in with some art at the Pompidou during a class trip—after returning from an all nighter in Prague, I started nodding off in the direction of one of the works. Afterwards, I schlepped home, took off my clothes, got into bed and cried with exhaustion and relief that I could finally go to sleep.)

I do an okay job of seeing the sites in New York, but it's been a long time since I tried a new museum. After sleeping in this morning, I pried myself off the couch and decided it was the perfect day to visit the Guggenheim.



Thanks to the aforementioned modern art class in Paris, I've seen a good amount of the stuff. Dada manifesto? I speak it. I was excited to see the Guggenheim, because I know they have a solid collection, plus a little side gallery of Impressionists.





I was not disappointed. The main gallery was doing the usual suspects (Pollick, De Kooning, Rothko) and there was a Kandinsky retrospective to boot.

The gallery is laid out in a big spiral and reaching the pinnacle does bring with it a sense of accomplishment. Look at me! I climbed the Gugg! I HAVE done something today!



Plus, Shake Shack after. Come on.



And so I am glad to have touristed my own city today. I still want to see Fireflies on the Water by Yayoi Kusama at the Whitney and cross the bridge into Long Island City for PS 1. And I imagine the New Museum is like the Palais de Tokyo—weiiiird shit—so that's on my List too. Three cheers for being half an hour away from WORLD CLASS ART, GUYS.

Places to Go: The Loire

The Loire Valley in France is where the language is purest, according to my high school AP French teacher. It's also full of castles, which—as anyone who knows me in the slightest can attest—are sort of my thing.

I've done one or two castles in my time (and that's just the tip of the castleberg), but a whole region of them?

My first French textbook—from 7th grade—was called Allez, Viens! which means something like, "Come on, let's go!" It was a fantastic way to learn French because it includes videos of people doing horrible skits and even old commercials (a SNCF ad from the '80s featuring puppets singing a song became a class meme before memes were even invented).*

It also introduced all the various Francophone regions, and one of them was the Loire. Thus, the Loire was one of my first impressions of what it must be like to be French and a castle dweller. As all French are, of course.

One day, I'd love to rent a car and drive around the Loire, visiting vineyards and scaling ramparts. Here's a list.

Both from Making Magique

*After some searching and trying to remember more than "et ta marraine aussi" and the "oui ouis," I FOUND IT:


Pub SNCF carte Kiwi 1987 by odilederey